Home
Home ' '"Home" 'is a song by English singer-songwriter Michael Mikey Brennan, the original non-studio unedited acoustic Alternate Version (also known as the demo version) and recorded on iPhone was released on YouTube on 30th January, 2016 along with Brennan's other song 'The Drinking Song' released the same day and was released to iTunes/ Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play and Deezer on 29th March, 2016, the song is known as Brennan's first "independent song", as it is the first song he made independently as opposed to his debut album which was made with help. 'Home' was re-recorded in late 2016 and additional instruments including Harmonicaand Hammond organ we added to the song in addition to Brennan's acoustic guitar and vocals. Brennan classified this new version as "the proper studio version" and it was produced by Tone B and released 1st February, 2017, this release showed a re-born artist of Brennan, as opposed to the original pop singer he was to begin with he was now taking on a new genre which was folk. The 'Home' EP was later on released on 20th March, 2017 which featured the song, as well as an instrumental version, radio edit version, a remix version by Soundrone, an acoustic version and a b-side original song titled 'Here For You. '''Background After releasing his debut album, 'Michael Mikey Brennan' in July, 2015 Brennan graduated from secondary school, Bower Grove School where he recorded his album, leaving all his producers who helped him make the album and other recordings inducing his covers behind, leaving him an independent artist who now had to write and produce his material by himself. In a blog post on Tumblr, Brennan revealed the inspiration behind the song: “One day, in the summer of 2015, I went up to Barming where some of my old school mates used to live. We had just graduated as Year 11 students, finished our GCSE studies and we had finished and left school and were going onto college in September. It was heartbreaking after graduating as we all had to say goodbye to each other and were all going to be separated once September approached. We were all 16, young, reckless and fresh and we all just wanted to make the most of the summer holidays before moving on in the Autumn, and one day I got a text from my mates saying, ‘Hey Mike, come and hang out with us in Barming today, it will be a laugh!’ and I basically said, ‘sure f**k it!’, you only live once after all. Plus, hanging out with my mates is like one of my favourite things to do! We had a great day you know, ‘hanging out’ doing some random teenage stuff, lad stuff and that! When we finished ‘hanging out’ it was about 5 o’ clock in the evening and I said to my mates, ‘Lads, it’s getting late I better go home now”. First of all, let me point out that Barming is miles away from where I live (I’d rather not give out the location of my home if that’s okay), you have to catch a train to get back to my house from Barming. After I said goodbye to my mates I walked to the train station but there were no more trains going to my location and then I tried the closest Bus station to Barming and there were no buses to take me home either (there weren’t any taxis either), I would have called my parents and asked them to pick me up but unfortunately they were away for the weekend and I didn’t want to spoil their holiday, so I ended up walking all the way home and whilst I was walking home I started singing, ‘I wanna’ go home’ multiple times and just thought up all the rest of the lyrics and the tune whilst walking home. When I got home eventually it was about 11 o’ clock at night and I went straight to bed and when I woke up in the morning I just got some paper and my guitar and started writing the song”. - Michael Mikey Brennan (Tumblr) August 11th, 2017. Brennan also admitted that songs such as John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', 'Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)' and Daniel Powter's 'Come Back Home' inspired him to write the song. 'Composition ' "Home" was composed in the key of D major, the verses follow a C-D-G chord progression, the interludes and choruses follow a D-G chord progression, the pre-choruses follows a C-F-D chord progression, the bridge follows a C-D-G chord progression and the ending verse follows a G-D Chord progression. 'Recording ' The original non-studio un-edited acoustic Alternate version (also known as the demo version) of 'Home' was recorded on Brennan's iPhone. However, in late 2016 Brennan began re-recording the song with the help of producer, Tone B. The new version of the song remained in the same key but new instruments such as Harmonica and Hammond Organ played by Tone B. were added to the song's arrangement in addition to Brennan's vocals and acoustic guitar. Although originally Brennan wanted the re-recorded version to be just vocals and acoustic guitar, just like the original version but with better quality, Tone B. suggested expanded on it to make it "more interesting" to the listening audience and more newer than the original. The new instrumentation arrangement of 'Home' was inspired by the work of Bob Dylan (this particularly applied to the use of harmonica) who became a big impact on the new Folk style of Brennan's music when Tone B. and Brennan continued making music after 'Home'. Brennan also announced that it was Dylan's song 'Blowin' In The Wind' that inspired the instrumentation arrangement, although he confirmed that this was Tone B.'s idea, not his. However, Brennan is a big Dylan fan and cites him as an influence to his style, lyrics, poetry and songwriting and is big fan of albums such as 'Bob Dylan', 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan', 'Highway 61 Revisited', John Wesley Harding' and others. The Dylan inspired elements from the song appeared to be quite recognisable to listening audience, both Laura Beck and Ben Gurney noticed this and reviewed the song comparing it to Dylan's sound, Beck stated that the song "has a Bob Dylan feel to it" and Gurney commented on the song saying that it was "Very Bob Dylan influenced!". Producer, Tone B. also stated that the instrumental version of 'Home' which was featured on the EP had a lot of Progressive Rock influences to the arrangement, especially with the use of Mellotron.